Hey lads, I'm currently trying to improve my fitness, possibly for army life perhaps at officer level.

I can generally run quite long distances without feeling tired, though I try to exert as much effort as possible. I hike two miles every other day with a 12kg pack on my back. I also do sit-up, press-up and tricep dip exersises every other day after my runs (usually two mile runs, sometimes 3-4 miles).

However I have a problem with decreasing my times for the runs and at the minute I'm running 1.5 miles in approx 11.00.

Also, I'm quite "lean", and I think this may be preventing me from doing my max press-ups/situps/tricep dips (currently doing 45/50/60 respectivly every two minutes).

My hike time is also quite abysmal with 36 mins for two miles on undulating terrain.

Are there any excersises, regimes, tips, adive you could offer me as to improving these rates, esp the run time, like I said I have no trouble in running basically any reasonable distance (from 1-15 miles), I just cannot seem to up the pace no matter how hard I try.

I'm considering swimming or circuit training, though I doubt these would help very much in increasing my pace.

Any adivce on any of these areas would be much appreciated, but in particular I would welcome advice on upping my pace over 1.5 to 2 miles

I have just posted a message on the 1.5 mile thread which biefly deals with your issue. Getting out and doing steady runs will improve your endurance so you can run further but once you are at a reasonable level of running fitness (and you are obviously already beyond that) it will tend to give limited improvement to your pace.

To get your pace up you need to do speedwork once or twice a week. There are many options but my preference is for Intervals and Fartlek. I briefly explained these in the the other thread. I have just extracted the following from the UK runers world site which also covers the same question. For the distance you want to speed up on I would suggest 4-6 intervals of 400 metres or 3-4 of 800 metres.

Q Iâve been running for just over a year now and can now comfortably train at around 10 minute/mile pace for an hour, which I do three times a week. However, Iâve been doing this for at least six months and donât seem to be able to get any quicker. Iâd like to do some speedwork, but worry that Iâm not quick enough yet. Is this the case?

A Absolutely not! Any regular runner can add speedwork to their training schedule and everyone can benefit from it. In fact, youâre now at the ideal stage to incorporate some faster running into your programme. Your three long runs a week will have helped you form an excellent endurance base on which to build, but if you stick to this routine your pace will improve only very slowly, and you risk getting disillusioned.
The key to running faster is running shorter. At the moment youâre probably running about six miles in each session. If you set out to run less, say just two miles or roughly 18 minutes, youâll find that you actually increase your pace without even trying. So my first step would be to add a shorter run to your weekly programme. You could replace one of your hour-long sessions with one of 20 minutes, or better still add it to your schedule as an extra run. If you have a heart-rate monitor use that. Compare your heart rate from your normal runs to your shorter run. If youâre running faster, your heart rate should be higher.

The next thing to do is to break your short run down into even shorter runs, or intervals, with a rest between each interval to get your breath back! This might make interval sessions sound terrifying, but once you get used to them theyâre one of the best ways of getting quicker.

An example of an interval session would be 6 x 400m (or around two minutes) with a couple of minutes to recover between each repetition. Be sure to have a 10-minute warm-up jog first and a similar cool-down afterwards. The best place to run intervals is on a track, but if you donât have one nearby donât worry. Find a flat grassy area, where you can run quickly for 90 seconds or so. As you get used to intervals you can start to add extra repetitions, reduce the amount of time you have to recover and increase the distance of each rep. These are guaranteed to make you faster. You can also do a session of random faster bursts within a normal run. It will all help.

One thing to remember, though: the day after any speedwork, have an easy day. Either do a very slow run, or do nothing at all. Following a hard session with another hard session will increase your chances of injury.âRob Spedding, RW Staff Writer

I ran a total of 2 miles and did eight 100m intervals over this distance. it was quite hard, sweated almost twice as much, but very rewarding once finished.

Probably a very subjective question but, saying I did two of these sessions a week, identical to the above, how long befoer I see a reasonable improvment in my overall 1.5 mile pace to about 9.30-10.00 mins given that i am running it in 11.00 at this moment?

If you can't answer that'll be fine I just want a realistic goal timeframe.

Everyone is different, it's all about training right. You could get yourself to a library where they have myriad books on this sort of thing. Remember though, training right is more important than training hard. Don't get injured, remember core stability (that doesn't just involve sit ups) and stretching.
You are looking at approximately 6 weeks to make a dent in that 1.5mile time. I take it you're a bloke? How old?

Yeah I am a bloke, I'm 16 years old. I always stretch and warm up properly. I tend to take one day easy on the upper body and hard on the lower body then swap for the next day, so as to avoid excessive pounding on the joints and over use of the muscles and repair time etc...

Though in saying that I like to train hard, its just my way, and I believe in doing so I'm reasonable fit for my age, though not extremely, but I'd like to be fitter (but most people equate fitness with being fast, but I'm more built for endurance). I enjoy being out running/hiking or whatever.

Of course I'd like to boost my gerneal fitness but i want to work especially on my run time as you NEED either 10.2 on the bleep test or a 1.5 mile in 10.30 to pass RCB. Also, what do you mean by core stability?

No idea about timescale but if you're 16 and running these times then you won't have a problem by the time you join.

What I would seriously recommend is you get a copy of "Fighting Fit" by Adrian Weale. If you follow the Fighting Fit programme to the letter (4 months long) you will achieve a good Army standard of fitness.
Excellent book - follow it and you can't go wrong. Gives advice on combination of cardio and weight work as well as practical stuff like bergen work-outs.

Just calm yourself down there my young friend. Its very easy when your out runnning to think that your not fast enough. When/If you get to RCB and your on your run, you will come to the realisation that your potential job is on the line and that your going to have to bust your ass to make the finish line. I guarantee that you will be running that 1.5mile course in less than 11mins on the day. No one wants to be last and you dont want to look bad in front of the RCB staff. Just keep training, dont over-do it and you will be fine. Good Luck!

My dad, a very good cross country runner in his youth, recommended doing the following for me. Bearing in mind i'm 5"8, prop forward build but can run 8 miles in less than an hour.

Day 1: 45 min easy run
Day 2: 5 X 5min sprints, with 2 min of rest between each sprint (Utter bastard this one)
Day 3: 70 min long run (aim for 10 miles or so) then 4 x 400m sprints with 1 min rest between each one.
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: 6 x 4 min sprints, with 2 min of rest between each sprint.
Day 6: 8 Miles in best effort.
Day 7: 2 Miles best effort.
Day 8: Rest

Now I'm not saying I do this every week, the last two weeks i've had an ankle injury, but when I do do this my fitness levels do increase noticably more than if i'd run 8 miles every day. Funny eh!

Just calm yourself down there my young friend. Its very easy when your out runnning to think that your not fast enough. When/If you get to RCB and your on your run, you will come to the realisation that your potential job is on the line and that your going to have to bust your ass to make the finish line. I guarantee that you will be running that 1.5mile course in less than 11mins on the day. No one wants to be last and you dont want to look bad in front of the RCB staff. Just keep training, dont over-do it and you will be fine. Good Luck!

Click to expand...

Just thought I'd add that, bizarrely, RCB candidates no longer do the 1.5 mile run - instead you have to get to level 10.2 on the bleep test (if you're a bloke). This is easy to do, but passing all the press ups/sit ups/bleep test easily does not mean they'll give you a good physical review.